I´m a colombian girl that decided to travel trough a global organization called AIESEC....THAT´S FIRST...
I´m 22 years old and I study visual design, i come froma middle city in Colombia called Manizales, the weather used to be cold and is full of hills everywhere...the people is really nice...for those who doesn´t have any idea where is Colombia and confuse it with Columbia which is in the US, so i have the map for you
Bogotá is the capital and our mother language is spanish, which i like soooo much...
Ok, this is the story....
For a colombian with a middle status like me (in colombia i´m in the middle of the social standard, in the rest of the world I´m poor and i don´t care to talk about it), is to difficult to get out from your country, traveling is just a dream and when you get to 60 or 70 still is a dream. I dare to dream, and I really didn´t wanted to be in my 40´s regreting about why I didn´t go anywhere when I had the opportunity and the time, of course not the money...
first, I applied for AIESEC, second I started to search an internship in Asia, why Asia? simple, I love it! for too many reasons...
I found one in TAIWAN, but I found one that it wasn´t paid and it didn´t last for too much just two months, agh such a nightmare, I arrange something for being able to stay at this coutry for longer and being able to earn some money...
So I accepted the form, which it was for teaching english in a primary school in Taipei, I was so happy, not for teaching, not for the kids (actually I used to have a terrible phobia to kids), not for the school, but for knowing that I was going to the other side of the world and that I wasn´t going to get stuck in the same place forever...
Now let me tell you that for an average colombian person is a real nightmare to get all the documentation that you need for go abroad...
THE PAPERS
I have to get the passport of course, the thing is that I never thought that I was going to travel so soon XD, I repeat it was a dream, but no more...
what papers for the passport? well photos,copy of the ID, and money, no more...
for taiwanese visa, well the nightmare!
to aiesec I have to give them:
My study certificate, english and spanish
VIH certificate (this one was useless when I get here ¬¬)
yellow fever vaccine
just a few letters from aiesec and the university ajsdka
for the visa
I needed the flight tickets (and yes, I needed two, I cannot get the one just one way, I had to buy the flight for coming and the one going back ¬¬)
a certificate that says what I was going to do in Taiwan
a bank account certificate, this one you need it to prove that you can really afford the travel...I actually think that is just for latin american people, such a bullshit!
passport copy
photos and more photos
a health certificate (useless when I get here)
you have to fill a form that the governement send you...
that´s it
THE NIGHTMARE OF THE TICKETS
I already said, I´m not rich, so find the money for the tickets was another story, I actually don´t work, and my mother is already retired and she just has each month a little bit more of the average salary in Colombia that´s aaam, if you just look at the numbers you will start to laugh really loudly, I don´t know how the people in Colombia survive with that, I´m so proud of it...
mmm, so she went to a bank and ask for a loan, which it was denied at just two weeks of the trip (i have to be at Taipei on the 20th of april)...
My mom and I cried, nobody knows our feelings, I know money is such a stupid thing for crying, but it wasn´t the money it was our dream just flushing away...
that next week was like hurry up, I haven´t had the visa yet, and most because I NEEDED A FREAKIN INVITATION LETTER FROM THE GOVERNEMENT OF TAIWAN! and that thing didn´t arrived, shit!...
ok, somehow, we found the money for the tickets (long story too nobody needs to know), now, find the cheapest tickets...
this ones had the following itinerary: Bogotá- New York (stop 2 hours)- Detroit(stop 6 hours)- Tokio(1 hour)- Taipei...
that was the cheapest one...XDD..*the schedule of the flight going back to Colombia is different, but I already lost that flight, so it doesn´t matter....)
cool now I needed a transit visa through the US...¬¬
more money, more time...
THE PAPERS US VISA
the same freakin bank account certificate
a kind of letter that proves that you are not going to stay at the USA ¬¬
photos and more photos
passport copy
a letter that says the reason why your traveling
the freakin receipt of the visa payment
the form that you have to fill in internet for apply for the visa
the flight tickets
I don´t remember what else...
oh and of course make an appointment in the embassy and wait for 4 to 5 five hours in a really long line until they tell you if you get the visa or not...
what I hated the most, is that they just asked for my passport, they asked me what I was going to do, if I could speak english and the flight tickets...that´s it, a fat guy told me: your visa has been approved...what´s that???...
of course none of the embassys, not the taiwanese (that in colombia is more like an office) an not the one from the USA have location in my city, so I had to travel to the capital (from my city to the capital is almost 8 to 9 hours XD in bus, there is no trains, and the planes are just to expensive).
I think I lost my point because I get to the capital on tuesday 13 april XD, and i get there to get both visas, and at that moment I didn´t have yet the invitation letter from Taiwan XD, I was really lucky when I checked the mail that same day, and there it was!!, the F****** letter!!... we went to the taiwanese embassy the same day we arrived (I wasn´t alone in my nightmare, another friend was traveling with me, I think it was worst for her)and the other thing is that both of us had the appointment in the US embassy the next day at 9 am...
so, we went to the embassy, they didn´t understand what we where going to do here in Taiwan, it was like: an internship?? AIESEC??what??...and the other thing was that she was a little bit rude about our health exams...ok, she took all the papers checked it and said to us: come for your visa tomorrow at 8:30 am!!!!!....the panic!!, they didn´t open the office earlier and the US embassy was really really far away...T___T...
the next day...
wake up at 5:30 am, why???...do you ever heard about the trafic in Bogotá???..let me tell you one thing, Bogotá has 8 million people, to many buses, to many cars, everything is to big and to much, like any other capital, just that this one is full of colombians XDDD...and full of street arrangements...
whatever, we get to the embassy 8 am XD to early, so we went for a breakfast at dunkin donuts XD..haha...
8 30, the office was open, we get the visa.. now run and get a cab!!!...
US embassy 9 20 am, they call our names!...is just to much....
ok wednesday night we left the capital with both visas...and we arrived to our town for say good bye...
